A Cut and Paste Religion

   It is the easiest thing in the world to take a belief, however true it may be, and accept it as mine. But Oswald says that that is not enough. He uses the verse in II Timothy 2 to illustrate what the path is to living this belief out, where Paul writes:

   15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (ESV)

   Here is a quote from the devotion for this morning:

   "Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Your position is not really yours until you make it yours through suffering and study. The author or speaker from whom you learn the most is not the one who teaches you something you didn't know before, but the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly."

   One of the easiest ways to write a right sounding blog is to cut and paste items from other sources. These sources can be from great Christian writers and even the Bible itself, but until they are lived out in my life, they are only of academic importance. I can even take these jewels and write or speak about them to others, and they are just words with no punch or validity.

   When I attempt to internalize, by study and thought, what is presented to me as truth, that is when it can become real to me. When I find that I have more questions than answers, then I realize that I have begun to make it more than just a truth, but my truth. Mental assent to a truth may be the first step to living it, but it is not the final step.

   Do I want to just speak the right things, or do I want my life to show that I really do believe what I say? The most powerful testimony to the truth is a person who lives it out. So, the old question from The Truth Project comes back to haunt me once again:

   "Do you really believe what you believe is really true?"

   God, please continue to help me to see Your truth, hear Your truth, study Your truth, and live Your truth, so that I might speak Your truth with clarity and conviction.